Queue control systems may be used in many places for guiding persons waiting for service by a plurality of service points, such as check-in desks at an airport, tellers at banks, etc in order to guide persons' queuing.
Queue control systems may thus used for example in commercial banks servicing a large number of customers. The customers may nowadays for example form a single queue which is serviced by a plurality of tellers, and as each customer reaches the beginning of the queue the customer proceeds to the first available teller. In such a system, the queue length will increase with an increase in the rate of customers joining the queue or with a decrease in the number of tellers servicing the queue, and will decrease with a decrease in the number of customers joining the queue or with an increase in the number of tellers servicing the queue. If the queue becomes too long, this increases the waiting time of the customers and breeds dissatisfaction; but if the queue disappears altogether, this results in one or more tellers being idle and thereby a wastage of labor. Such queues may be controlled by visual observation and personal judgement. However, such a system is very inefficient since it is not only imprecise, resulting in lines becoming too long or completely eliminated, but is also time-consuming since it requires continuous observation by management personnel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,163 discloses a queue monitoring and control system for monitoring and controlling a queue of persons waiting for service by a plurality of clerks, comprising: a card dispenser for dispensing sequentially-numbered cards to persons as each joins the end of the queue; a plurality of card readers, one for each clerk, for reading the card number when received by the clerk from each person as each reaches a clerk at the beginning of the queue; a real time clock for indicating the queue joining time for each card dispensed by the dispenser to a person when joining the end of the queue, and the clerk reaching time for each card read by the card readers as each person reaches a clerk at the beginning of the queue; and a data processor including: means for inputting predetermined fixed data relating to permissible queue parameters; means for inputting the card numbers and queue joining times from the card dispenser and the real time clock, and the card numbers and clerk reaching times from the card readers and the real time clock; and programmed means for controlling the data processor to indicate any changes in the number of clerks required in order to comply with the permissible queue parameters of the inputted fixed data.
Also this kind of prior art queue control systems have certain problems: they are complex and ineffective especially as they require a complex control apparatus with card dispensers and further a plurality of card readers, one for each clerk, for reading the card number when received by the clerk from each person etc.